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There’s nothing like a pandemic to bring out the hucksters. Need a cure for your COVID? Try colloidal silver solution! Or how about some UV light, internally (don’t ask)? And if that doesn’t work, I’ve got a blister pack of horse deworming tablets that’ll do the trick.
We have a term for these nostrums: “snake oil”. But did you know that snake oil wasn’t always, well, snake oil? Medical historian Caitjan Gainty tells the captivating story of this serpentine solution, and its journey from legitimate treatment to a byword for quackery. And in an ironic twist, it may even make a comeback as an ingredient in vaccines.
Candyman is back in cinemas in a remake of the 1992 classic. Find out why this spooky story – an amalgam of urban legends – has such strong appeal.
Elsewhere, the US and allied forces have now left Afghanistan, but not everyone who wanted to leave was able to board a plane. Fortunately, the right to leave any country is established in international law – and lawyers will be watching to see whether it is upheld.
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Clint Witchalls
Health + Medicine Editor (UK edition)
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Retro AdArchives/Alamy Stock Photo
Caitjan Gainty, King's College London
Snake oil, rich in omega-3 fatty acids, was a go-to medicine for many ailments.
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Afghan refugees preparing to board a South Korean flight in Kabul.
EPA-EFE/Republic of South Korea Air Force handout
Emilie McDonnell, University of Oxford
Everyone has the right to have a country to seek asylum, but it will need international cooperation to get the Taliban to honour this right.
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Universal Pictures/MGM Pictures
Joe Stubbersfield, University of Winchester
Urban legends are shaped by the people who tell them and where they’re from. That’s why you’ll hear so many versions of the same story.
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Politics + Society
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Neta C. Crawford, Boston University
Following the completion of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Neta Crawford, the co-director of the Costs of War Project, reflects on 7,268 days of American involvement in the conflict.
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Amy Clair, University of Essex
A new analysis shows how government policy led to thousands more overcrowded households in the years ahead of the pandemic.
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Simon Holdaway, University of Sheffield
I was part of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry into police race discrimination. The new drama is a reminder of how far we still have to go to tackle institutional racism.
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Helen Williamson, University of Brighton
Jake Davison’s legally owned weapon was seized in the months before he killed five people – but it was soon returned to him.
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Health
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Kamila Stullerova, Aberystwyth University
As well as protecting a great number of people, giving vaccines away can raise the UK’s influence abroad and perhaps even change how the country perceives the pandemic.
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Andrew Watterson, University of Stirling
This inquiry must meet high public expectations, demonstrate independence and provide answers to many technical and policy questions – all made more difficult because of past inquiry failures.
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Ian M. Mackay, The University of Queensland
It’s not spreading widely, and it’s not at Australia’s doorstep. The tools we have in place work against the coronavirus.
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Adam Collins, University of Surrey
The best eating strategy for weight loss is the one that suits you.
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Environment + Energy
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Nick Shay, University of Miami
Ida exploded from a weak hurricane to a powerful Category 4 storm in less than 24 hours, thanks to heat from an ocean eddy. An oceanographer explains its rapid intensification.
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Andrew Barron, Swansea University
A new type of petrol is expected to cut carbon dioxide
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Mike Jeffries, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Less attractive endangered species don’t tend to receive the same public attention as their more beautiful counterparts: new studies show how we might help change that.
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Science + Technology
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Justine Wintjes, KwaZulu-Natal Museum
Money cowries were used for thousands of years as currency across the Indo-Pacific world but introduced into Atlantic commercial networks relatively late.
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Featured events
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University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, AB24 3FX, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Aberdeen
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20 Bedford Way , London , London, City of, WC1H 0AL , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — UCL
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Lancaster University, Lancaster , Lancashire, LA1 4YW, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Lancaster University
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Floor 12 (West), Muirhead Tower, University of Birmingham , Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Birmingham
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